The FBI in Decline

[May 8, 2018] Greetings. I’m new to General Satterfield’s leadership blog so he thought it right to say a few words about myself. First, I was a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 20 years. Second, I firmly believe in the rule of law, a non-political and independent FBI, and in the United States of America. If you are an American and cannot agree with that last statement, then you need to get out of the country now (but I know you won’t). American is the greatest nation on Earth and those who work at the FBI are part of an exceptional network of law enforcement people who want to keep it that way. Does that make me biased? Yep and proud of it. Ten years prior to joining the FBI, I was a U.S. Navy Intelligence officer.

Okay, here we go with my main point today. This is an opinion piece.

Most Americans don’t know of nor even understand the interworkings of the FBI; nor should they. What you need to know is that the FBI is a professional organization and like any other successful one they have had a long track-record of exceptional leadership and highly skilled men and women that work there. That’s the positive side of the FBI. The downside to this is that senior leaders currently at the FBI have become politicized and they are as much a threat to ffreedom-lovingAmericans as any foreign enemy. I’m not refereeing to former FBI Director James Comey or some of the others who are now gone but to many in senior positions that are still there and are smart enough lay low and not get caught obstructing a professional FBI.

What you’ve probably know by now is that the FBI has also become a partisan battleground since much has been published about this sad state of affairs. I will tell you why but you will not like it and probably won’t believe me. The reason is that under President Obama, he had a completely hands-off philosophy toward the mission of the FBI; in other words, he let others in his staff do what they wanted and involved the FBI in actions they should have never agreed. Now, I blame James Comey for that. He was a weak man who should have known better. I had respect for him but that is now all gone. For someone in such a high position and who is very smart, he failed us totally. The sad part is, he knows it but since his ego is so big, he will do everything to deny it and blame others for his own personal failure.

If you have lost trust in the FBI, you are not alone because most of the average Joe (and Jane) have also. The scandal brewing here (and it’s a big scandal) is that senior FBI officials plotted to let Hillary Clinton off the hook for federal crimes she committed. To make matters worse, it was planned by these same FBI leaders to set-up Donald Trump if he by chance did get elected and blame it on his collusion (whatever that means) with the Russians to “steal” the presidency. The level of insult to the American people is so outrageous that it pales in believability. Not since the FBI deep-sixed evidence during the Watergate scandal has the head of the FBI been so discredited. Read my lips on this one, the FBI is in decline.

Don’t believe me … I don’t care. Why? Because the facts are coming out, too slow for my blood but it is happening. More at another time on what my current friends at the FBI are telling me about the interworkings of the FBI.

Biography: Delf A. “Jelly” Bryce is a recently-retired senior agent of the United States’ FBI. The name used here, however, is not his real name because what he tells us might be confidential in nature (although not classified). But since he is revealing information that can be embarrassing to the FBI, he does not want to be personally identified and to harm his friends still working there. What I am allowed to say is that Agent Bryce was born in Oklahoma and is an expert shot with his service pistol.

Or … are we seeing the beginning of the end of the FBI as we know it. Will the US Congress create greater oversight (which is their constitutional right to do so)? Or will the FBI become just another job creator like state DMVs? The latter is not likely but we have not heard the last of the problems within the FBI.

Much will be said and written about the FBI over the next few years. What history will finally write is unknown to us except certainly it will say that the FBI fell from grace in the eyes of the American public. That cannot be denied. The end result when citizens lose faith in their govt institutions, bad things will begin to happen. The evil elements in their society will grow and, of course, crime will increase. We are already starting to see crime go up but I think unrelated to this FBI scandal.

Like most government agencies, the FBI is just another bunch of good folks trying to do good but are being held back by their leaders. Revolt? No, they are too professional. Work hard on the inside to make things better. The American people are pulling for you. We are your cheerleaders.

I have to agree with many of the commentators here. But it will take a lot more scandal to diminish the FBI in my eyes. They are still doing America a great service. It matters not to me that people like past Director Jim Comey is doing really stupid things (which make him look silly and unprofessional) which prove he should have been fired a long time ago.

As they say, “another one bites the dust” and that applies to James Comey and many others at the FBI. When it starts to unravel, things are going to get a lot worse and I expect many great leadership lesson to be generated from this scandal.

Lots of news out about Comey’s “fall from grace” and daily I see more of this. Conservative news outlets are mercilessly hammering him about his lies and deceit. There is an old saying that you can have “a hundred atta boys, but it only takes one aw shit to screw things up.” I think I got this from the army. It certainly applies here.

Unfortunately, as Watson B. noted below, we are seeing the fall of a once-great organization. No one person is to blame because it takes a lot of folks to make any group or organization great or terrible. In the case of the FBI, we can point directly at the senior leadership for their own hand in the fall of the FBI. James Comey (I know Gen Satterfield thinks he is a good man) is largely to blame during his time as the Director of the FBI but now that he is out on his book tour, things are much worse for them. He is making money and destroying their reputation day by day.

I think you will find Mr. Bryce that most Americans still stand fully behind the FBI and those that stand up to protect us. If you’re from Texas I can assure you that is the case (I’m from Texas!). Good work in bringing much of this out into the open. A little sunlight will always do you good in any organization.

Many Americans will blame President Trump for the decline because he is always bashing them and much of their leadership. But they miss the mark in reality. It is the FBI that has brought this upon themselves. That there is no denying and you are blind if you think otherwise.

With new forms of media that are both good and bad, we are starting to “see” the insides of many organizations that are part of our government. This is like your first discovery of how sausage is made; not a good sight and will make you sick to your stomach. Perhaps that is what we are seeing here.

I never worked at the FBI but did consulting work for them on occasion through my company that is involved in cybersecurity. I found all very professional, smart, and dedicated. On occasion, I would hear a complaint about the senior leadership but I thought that was just the normal gripping you hear in any large organization.

It amazes me to no end how much damage the Obama Administration did to so many of our great federal agencies by allowing them to be turned into bastions of progressive ideology. I won’t say it was done by Obama himself because he just allowed himself to be a bystander while it occured. He was a like-minded soul and probably thought it was acceptable as long as they didn’t bother him and his family and friends.

Hey Jelly, good article. We all appreciate you took our suggestion and wrote an article for Gen Satterfield’s blog. Nicely done. I would suggest another on the topic of how the FBI and CIA cooperate and where the “kinks in the armor” lay. Thanks.

I have worked with many officers from the FBI and they were all very professional and dedicated. True, they were not high ranking members but what you see at the lower rungs of any organization you are likely to also see at the top. There is always a culture and in this case a culture of professional service.

I never worked with FBI folks but I had one as a neighbor and he was a great guy with a great, stable family. I know this is not a good sample but it gives you an idea of how much respect the regular guys and gals are at the FBI. I guess this will be a great leadership lesson that should be studied any time there is a class given on leadership. How not to succeed.

Albert, I must agree with you on this one. Despite their long and professional history in protecting American, I think now it’s just another job producing federal organization like we see in state Motor Vehicle Registration locations with bad service and unpredictable employees.

It wasn’t that long ago that I thought the top leadership at the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and other federal law enforcement organizations had the best, brightest, and most patriotic Americans in them. No longer. Now I see them as just another politicized group that might just be a threat to the US more than a terrorist. How sad for they have fallen so far.